In the valve arts there are well known a variety of valve structures which are disposed within elongated tubular members for the purpose of controlling fluid flow within such tubular members. Among such valves are a variety of valve structures which remain normally in one state, either open or closed, and which are changed to the opposite state by manually induced deformation or movement of valve elements within the tube structure. Some such valves have taken the form of valve assemblies which are inserted within a fluid carrying conduit while others have been formed in unitary fashion with the fluid carrying conduit.
Among the prior art which is representative of such valves in U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,834 which discloses a deformable squeeze valve element having a rigid tube running through it, the squeeze valve being operable by squeezing of projections thereon from an undeformed state to a deformed state whereby a fluid flow passage is opened. U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,409 discloses a valve structure within a fluid carrying tube which is opened by moving a pair of adjacent valve elements to an offset orientation with respect to one another by deforming the flexible tube in which they are disposed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,675 discloses a squeeze valve comprised of a rigid ball member disposed within a flexible resilient tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,418,592 discloses a syringe valve which is operable upon deformation of a flexible tube within which it is disposed by lateral bending of the tube. A valve with similar operating action is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,450,146. U.S. Pat. No. 274,447 discloses another squeeze valve consisting of resiliently flexible elements formed integrally with a tube structure.